The Next Joker!

The rumors have been confirmed, and it's now official, from the director's mouth! Heath Ledger is certainly an interesting casting choice as the Joker in the next Nolan/Bale Batman film, The Dark Knight. I've been a fan of his ever since I first saw A Knight's Tale; hopefully he'll do the character proud. With this casting choice, Nolan continues to distance his Batman movies from the Burton films (and the tripe that followed when crap director extraordinaire, Joel Schumacher, took over).

Lingering thoughts and curiosities:

• Will the Dark Knight story borrow from existing writers the way Batman Begins borrowed from Year One? A Killing Joke story would be neat, especially since the origin of the Joker is so different than in Burton's film, and Gordon figures prominently in the plot (and when you've got Gary Oldman as Gordon, more screen time would be nice).
  
• How many films will Nolan and Bale do before calling it quits? Nolan has already hinted that he won't be around to bring Robin into the picture, so that rules out a Death in the Family storyline. That's probably just as well; in order to do that properly, it might necessitate an 'R' rating, which I don't see happening. Besides, Batman Begins was already dark enough.
• Speaking of 'dark' - when Nolan calls it quits, how about the Sin City team of Rodriguez and Frank Miller to pick up the franchise and take it in yet another direction? Based on how Sin City looked, that would be a Batman unlike anything seen before. Plus with Miller involved, it would increase the likelihood of The Dark Knight Returns coming to the big screen, which would of course be super-sweet.